SOL DE SANGRE AND DESPISING AGE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Oct 072017
 

 

I thought about not putting anything together for the site today, just taking a break and working on some round-ups and reviews I’ve planned for Sunday and Monday. After all, there have been some other Saturdays and Sundays over the last 8 years when we haven’t posted anything. Maybe 9 or 10, total. Still bugs me when that happens. So it won’t happen today after all.

But I am scaling back. I’ve picked just two songs to share. I noticed them for the first time this morning; things I found earlier in the week are part of the bigger round-ups mentioned above. These two helped get my sluggish morning blood get going when I heard them.

SOL DE SANGRE

I’ve rapidly become a fan of Sol De Sangre, even though I’ve now only heard two songs by them. The first one I wrote about here a month ago is a tribute to Altar of Madness-era Morbid Angel named “Más Abajo del Infierno” — which is now available on Bandcamp. The second one, “Muertos Con Ojos Estallados“, popped up on YouTube just yesterday, and is yet another summoning of the evil death metal these dudes grew up with. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GREYTOMB — “FORCE MAJEURE”

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Oct 062017
 

 

Transcending Obscurity Records has allied itself with a significant number of excellent extreme metal bands from Australia, including The Dead, The Furor, Illimitable Dolor, Somnium Nox, and Norse, and recently the Australian black metal band Greytomb has joined those ranks.

The band’s first recording was a 2015 demo, The Mourning Field, and they followed that with a debut album last year, A Perpetual Descent. What lies ahead is a new EP named Monumental Microcosm, which the band describe as “a serious transition from the music we were creating to what we will be creating” — “a new era of dark, cosmic and nihilistic art!” It will be released by Transcending Obscurity on December 19th.

Monumental Microcosm consists of three substantial tracks, one of which it’s our pleasure to present to you today: “Force Majeure“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PILE OF PRIESTS — “REDEMPTIONEM PER CRUCIATU”

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Oct 062017
 

 

I know exactly where I was (Anchorage, Alaska) almost two years ago when I heard the first track off Pile Of Priests’ debut album, Void To Enlightenment. I also know exactly how cold it was outside (1°F). I know these things because I pasted the data from my phone at the top of the post where I wrote about that song — a track that made me much warmer, and left my jaw hanging loose with some drool wetting my chin.

That track wasn’t the only jaw-dropper on Void To Enlightenment. And thankfully, that album also isn’t the last of the devil’s work that this Denver-based progressive death metal band have seen fit to do. They’re at work on a new EP, but in the meantime they’re releasing a new single that we’re premiering today through a lyric video, the title of which is “Redemptionem Per Cruciatu“. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MORBID ANGEL, AUROCH, PAROXSIHZEM, SICARIUS, THE NEGATIVE BIAS, HÄIVE, THE KAHLESS CLONE, WITCHES MOON

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Oct 062017
 

 

The weekend is nearly upon us. And before we close the books on the work week and begin whatever we cook up for the site on Saturday and Sunday, I thought I’d collect a few recent and recently discovered items of interest — two items of news at the outset, and then five new songs. I should mention that we also have two more premieres coming today… don’t miss those!

MORBID ANGEL

Morbid Angel being the iconic band that they are, even their belching after a sumptuous meal would provoke strong and inconsistent reactions among a vast fan base. Just imagine the reactions to yesterday’s announcement of a new album, one whose name begins with a “K” and is framed by the cover art you see above.

I usually don’t read extended comment threads on the internet, unless they appear on this site, because it’s like walking at night through a park littered with dog turds where the owners didn’t have the common courtesy to put them in flaming bags. But I read a few yesterday on Morbid Angel’s announcement. Continue reading »

ENSLAVED: “E”

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Oct 062017
 

 

(This is Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Norwegian icons Enslaved, which will be released by Nuclear Blast on October 13.)

Whereas the popular vision of the Vikings is one of horn-helmeted, heavily bearded barbarians, with an axe in one hand and a drinking horn in the other, the truth of the matter is that the Norsemen (and women) of old were more than just pirates and plunderers. They were a culture of scholars and seers, inventors and explorers, whose lust for life and adventure led them to traverse the farthest reaches of the known world.

It’s only fitting then that their descendants in Enslaved seem to have inherited this same pioneering spirit, and that their career so far has been one of almost constant exploration and reinvention, a potent mix of myth and metaphysics which has seen them always looking towards new horizons, while never losing touch with their roots.

And perhaps nowhere is this more evident than on their fourteenth(!) album, the free-spirited E, which is not only the band’s most shamelessly progressive and indulgently introspective release since Vertebrae, but which also draws influence and inspiration from all eras of their history, from the medieval majesty of Vikingligr Veldi to the cosmic contemplation of Below the Lights, resulting in what is probably their most confident and creatively ambitious album in years. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DE PROFUNDIS — “BEYOND THE THRESHOLD”

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Oct 062017
 


photo by Ester Segarra

 

The name De Profundis is one you will recognize if you’ve been a frequent visitor to our site (or have otherwise kept your antennae alert to the emergence of excellent metal), given that we have published positive reviews of their 2013 album The Emptiness Within, their 2014 EP Frequencies, and most recently (and most glowingly) their latest album, Kingdom of the Blind, released in 2015. Of that album, my comrade Andy Synn wrote:

“[T]his move towards a proggier outlook – more expressive and textured and, ultimately, more natural – has clear benefits for both the Prog and the Death aspects of the band’s sound. The heaviest moments benefit from a greater sense of focus and direction, while the band’s progressive side is given free rein to fully express itself, and, on a grander scale, the songs themselves feel simultaneously more streamlined and structured, yet also more complex and freeform, with a greater sense of fluidity and flow between moments of blast-fuelled fury and expansive, melodic creativity…. Kingdom of the Blind is by far the band’s finest hour, and every subsequent re-listen has only cemented this impression.” Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND REVIEW): DREADNOUGHT — “A WAKE IN SACRED WAVES”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Oct 052017
 

 

Adjectives and phrases like “multifaceted”, “intricate”, and “richly textured” leap to mind in reflecting upon the wonders of Dreadnought’s new album, A Wake In Sacred Waves, but they seem inadequate. The music is exuberantly and inventively kaleidoscopic, filled to overflowing with juxtapositions of sound and emotional resonance. In its elaborate and intelligently plotted variations, and in its ability to draw the listener deeply into its changing moods, it has few genuine rivals this year.

Trying to scale its dizzying heights and descend into its labyrinthine depths through mere words proves to be a daunting challenge. Fortunately for me (and for you), we have a full stream of the album for you today, just before its October 6 release. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WHEELFALL — “THE ATROCITY REPORTS”

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Oct 052017
 

 

To greater and lesser degrees, every track on the French band Wheelfall’s new album gets your head in a hammer lock and seizes control of your involuntary muscle reflexes. Remaining motionless as you listen is not an option. To greater and lesser degrees, every track is also unerringly bleak and disturbing. It’s the kind of black-hearted music that seems simultaneously to be clawing in a blood frenzy to get at your throat while also clubbing you senseless with a cold, machine-like determination and precision.

In reflecting on the album experience, “violent”, “hallucinatory”, “insane”, and “oppressive” are among the words that spring to mind. “Massively heavy” and “compelling” are other words that seem appropriate. The warmth of human kindness, mercy, forgiveness, and love — all of that has been brutally banished from Wheelfall’s musical realm, but man, what they’re doing here is electrifying. The Atrocity Reports keeps you on the edge of your seat, all nerves firing. Sometimes it feels like the world is coming apart, or at least your own sanity, but the allure is nonetheless (and perhaps perversely) irresistible. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BARROWLANDS — “EMPTY HANDS GRASPING”

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Oct 052017
 

 

This Portland black metal band’s debut album Thane made an immediate favorable impression when I first began listening to it in 2014. As I described here, only two songs in, and I paused to buy it on Bandcamp. And thus it was a pleasant surprise when I learned that Barrowlands have completed work on a new album, Tynidr, which will be released on October 20 by Vendetta Records.

Guitarist Jay Caruso tells us about the album’s title and how it connects to the music: “Tyndir, a norse word for fallowed ground, speaks of the tension between nature and man and the realization that nature will ultimately reclaim all that man claims sacred.” Continue reading »

GWAR: “THE BLOOD OF GODS”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Oct 052017
 

 

(This is Wil Cifer’s review of the new album by GWAR, whch will be released by Metal Blade Records on October 20.)

Their blood-drenched, cum-soaked live shows overshadowed the fact these guys had some good songs and made pretty killer albums up to, say, This Toilet Earth. They also used to be one of my favorite bands in high school, so the nostalgia runs deep. It also makes me proceed with caution knowing that they are carrying on without their lead singer Oderus Unrungus, whose human form Dave Brockie passed away in 2014. His voice fluctuated from a gruff punk-like bellow that could have come off of a Fear record to more of a growl or a croon.

I became more willing to give them a new shot when I learned that Blothar, the new singer, is the old Beefcake the Mighty taking on a new mantel. So they promoted from within. I can deal with this better than if it was some new guy they just brought in. The new sound has to grow on me even though he handled the vocals on the song “Nice Place to Park“. So his voice is not totally alien. It holds a Blackie Lawless-like edge. The songs on the new album typically carry a more straight-ahead metal feel in the vein of mid-’80s thrash, with songs like “Viking Death Machine” touching on their punk roots. Continue reading »

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